Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

politics

  • Belief v. Action

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    5 min read

    In church circles there is a lot of exercise around the idea that there is dichotomous relationship between our beliefs and our actions. This is particularly evident between the groups Phyllis Tickle refers to as the Social Justice Christians (ie. the Mainliners) and the Conservative Christians (conservative evangelicals and Southern Baptists). In this paradigm, one…

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  • Throw Your Process Off a Bridge

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    2 min read

    It has become clear that we are in an age in which process and system are colliding. Our institutions aren’t failing because they are institutions (and our government isn’t failing simply because it is government).  They fail because the process is obstructing the system. What I mean by process and system are simply the difference…

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  • Roman Catholic Bishops Out of Control

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    3 min read

    And especially not on contraception. Ever since Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Church’s senseless ban on birth control in 1968, few doctrines have been as vilified, ridiculed and outright ignored by Catholics – evidenced by a recent study showing that 98% of American Catholic women have used some form of contraception. It’s hard to believe,…

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  • No Level Playing Field For Small and Big

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    4 min read

    I used to have a reoccurring conversation with a friend in college about equality.  He is a libertarian and argues for minimal interference and rules.  I am not.  He would talk about the level playing field between he and minorities, including women.  He argued that they had the same chances he had.  I pointed out that he…

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  • Oh, How We Need The Dream

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    4 min read

    A year and a half ago, I wrote a post about “the dream speech” by Martin Luther King, Jr.  In it, I wrote the following: …I will share how I, living in the country transformed by this moment, still respond to Dr. King’s words. When Dr. King says, toward the opening of the famous “I…

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  • When GOD Gives Conflicting Instructions

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    4 min read

    On her blog yesterday, the Rev. Susan Russell announced a Celebration of Equality.  It is a really special event in the life of her Pasadena congregation and I’m sure is going to be an awesome sight.  In the midst of this celebration is a “sneak preview” of a new documentary about the Rt. Rev. V.…

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